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Monday, August 4, 2014

"Christian Unity Not about Christian Uniformity" says Ordinary

Mgr Newton and Bishop Philip Egan.

The Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham,
Monsignor Keith Newton, has preached to hundreds of Mass-goers in
Portsmouth Cathedral, where he spent the weekend of 26/27 July, about
the vision of Christian unity held out by the Ordinariate.

He said that people sometimes asked members of the Ordinariate why
they couldn't become "proper Catholics" . "What they mean", he said, is
"why can't you just be absorbed into the wider Catholic Church so that
what you bring disappears like sugar dissolved in water". The answer ,
Mgr Newton said, was that Christian unity was not about Christian
uniformity; rather it was about exploring the possibility of sharing a
common faith in communion with the successor of Peter and yet having
different liturgical, devotional and pastoral practices which enriched
the wider Church. This, he said, had "important ecumenical
implications".

The Ordinary spoke of the Ordinariate Use Mass, approved by Rome last
year, which integrates elements of the Church of England Book of Common
Prayer into the Roman rite. He said the Book of Common Prayer was one
of the "treasures to be shared" with the Catholic Church. People in
Portsmouth who were interested to find out more could go to an
Ordinariate"exploration day "event being held by the local Portsmouth
Ordinariate group at St Agatha's Church on 6 September where they could
experience the Ordinariate Use Mass.

The Portsmouth event is one of some 40 different events being held on
6 September by Ordinariate groups across the country aimed at helping
people - especially those in the Church of England who may feel that God
could be calling them into communion with Rome - to understand the
Ordinariate better. Pope Francis has sent a message to the Ordinary in
which the Holy Father sends good wishes and says he is praying for the
success of the day.

Mgr Newton's visit to Portsmouth was arranged as part of an appeal by
the Friends of the Ordinariate, which was set up to assist the
Ordinariate and support its work. By kind permission of Bishop Philip
Egan of Portsmouth, the Ordinary celebrated three Masses and preached at
all the Masses over the weekend. There was a retiring collection for
the Friends of the Ordinariate.

The Ordinary's homily included an appeal for prayers for the
persecuted Catholic Christians of the Eastern Rite who are suffering in
Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

This website is dedicated to a renewal of Christian culture. It is inspired by Sir Winston Churchill, a valiant defender of Christian civilization, who believed "we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries." With Churchill, we believe that a "fraternal association" of the English-speaking peoples must "for their own safety and for the good of all walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.”